I AM AIA
Janet Stephenson
A well-known AEC industry leader, my reputation is synonymous with innovation and sustainability. With experience spanning architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing, I have championed energy efficiency, mass timber, and industrialized construction. With experience as the VP of Sales for Modwall, my career ranges from leading $1B pipeline of multifamily housing at Katerra, to conceiving the AIA+2030 program while at AIA Seattle. I have served on Seattle’s Design Review Board, USGBC’s Greenbuild Program Working Group, and helped launch USGBC-LA. I blend business acumen, advocacy and joy to realize bold ideas grounded in human needs, environmental urgency, design excellence, and real-world feasibility.
I joined AIA Seattle because…
AIA Seattle is the power of community, a collective voice, and our creative conscience. It’s where hierarchy dissipates, relationships are made, careers are catalyzed and passions thrive and effect change. It keeps us honest, forward-thinking, and connected, and makes space for our curiosity while ensuring there is meaning, quality, recognition and value in design.
Which is to say, the people are fantastic and I want to spend more time with you all!
What relationships have I created?
Many, in large part thanks to my time serving AIA Seattle’s membership as program director over 15 years ago. From skeptical developers turned co-conspirators to architects and contractors who became lifelong collaborators (and dance pals), my AIA circle challenges each other, and cheers each other on.
What projects am I working on now?
I’m working with Modwall to rethink and replace one of construction’s most wasteful assumptions: that walls are disposable. We’re designing modular interior systems that evolve with people and place—eliminating drywall, dust, and demolition. It’s circularity made tangible, offering flexibility without the environmental hangover. As needs inevitably change, so can your space—without sending it to the landfill.
Today I was inspired by…
The kindness of a stranger.
I describe what I do for a living as…
Being a backstage producer. I operate in the white space: a connector, a facilitator, a strategist, instilling belief in possibility to move vision to viability. Ideally, I am always living up to a comment made of me a long time ago by Ash Awad of McKinstry that I’m a “pleasure and a provocateur”.
Where do I think the field of architecture, engineering, or construction is heading?
I see exceptional design continuously being prepared and innovated by exceptional people and amazing new tools. I see commodity architectural solutions and transactional pursuits being automated to a level that drastically decreases the need for exceptional people producing them. Specialties will retain value. Commodity Architecture, similar to corn, may be siloed, trucked, and delivered with unprecedented speed, and diminished global value.
What do I hope to contribute through my work?
I hope to boost people’s belief in themselves, to challenge people’s beliefs, and, together, make purposeful progress.
I hope more people will say “and” instead of “but”.
My favorite Seattle-area structure is…
Olympic Sculpture Park, designed by Weiss/Manfredi with local input. Transforming a contaminated industrial site into a world class publicly accessible waterfront park that combines environmental restoration, walkability, art, multi-functional space, and open access. Multi-functional circularity, inclusivity, beauty, ecological restoration, and where I walked my dog every day —check, check, check, and check.
Do I believe design can save the world?
Hard one! Define “design”. Define “save”. Define “world”. Let’s discuss! For now, I will say that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
